I Wanna Stand In Your Light & In My Own
by seh28
Summary: A one shot post 2.14 He's Back. One night Hardman shows up unannounced and successfully drives a wedge between Harvey and Jessica. I'm gonna just label this as my own personal character study of the two of them amidst a high level of angst. This story is angst ridden. I tried to keep them both as in character as possible, but there may be some OOC moments. Read and Review! Enjoy.


It was an incredibly strange phenomenon to feel yourself behave in a way that was absolutely unfamiliar to you. To be wound tightly inside of yourself with no true outlet or recoil. To be hopelessly devoid of a counter attack, a trump card or something, anything to, at the very least, catapult you back into the present moment. This moment where you needed to fight off the king piranha.

He just wouldn't stop, he wouldn't quit. The verbal ammunition kept spewing vehemently out of Daniel Hardman's mouth. She just stood there half-listening to him unleash his deft and calculated stream of attacks on her, all she could think to do was breathe. Her own personal lack of verbal retorts left her concentrating squarely on his smarmy, smug face and her breath. The palms of both of her hands started to itch as she fought off the urge to slap him. No, that wasn't her style. She hit others with rhetorical accuracy. With her words and with her brain. Not with her hands. Though in that very moment her desire to hit him was almost blinding.

Jessica shifted her eyes and crossed her arms as his voice registered in her ears again. She had tuned him out after the first sling of insults. She could feel her legs start to tremble and instantly wanted to curse herself more than him in that moment. This wasn't her, this wasn't Jessica Pearson. She was not the type of person to stay silent when another person viciously attacked her or her character. She was too strong for that. Too powerful, too capable. She'd been through too much and had come out on the other side a borderline unbreakable being. Who was this woman that had inhabited her body? Where was her fight, her depth, her fortitude? Had it escaped her without her knowledge? Had all of the hysteria of the past couple of months bleed her of her sovereignty and majesty?

No, no. That couldn't be correct.

But yet, there she stood. Only the remnants of her backbone holding her up as Daniel continued his vicious and gruesome attack on her character. It was something he said specifically that had made her shut down. Actually, it was something he said that brought back a memory that had frozen her in her tracks. He had drudged up an old instance that she had buried so deep in her mind, that she hadn't recalled in years and years. Memories from all that time ago when she had revered him so completely, when he had taught her so much, molded her, validated her. Reinforced with such velocity what her parents and family had drilled into her for most of her life. That she really could be anything. That she was capable of superb accomplishments. That she was destined for a greatness that she couldn't fully fathom at the time.

She had been no stranger to hard work. She knew success would take so much of everything. So much time, sacrifice, skill, effort, direction. And she was willing to give all of those things. To be on the same level and in the same sentence as someone as brilliant and capable as Daniel Hardman. But there was one thing that she wasn't willing to give. One thing that she wasn't willing to do. So when he had propositioned her, she was stunned and scared and hurt. She felt betrayed. Was that what he had in mind the whole time? Is that why he mentored and taught her? Was that his reasoning behind fostering the trust and respect that she had developed for him? She had managed to laugh it off and disregard the entire thing as if it was a misunderstanding, even though she knew deep down that it was intentional. That was the first chink in his armor. She lost all comfort and some respect for him after it happened.

He didn't ruin her for rejecting him though. She remembered almost fondly, almost as if she would have expected something like that from the person she had come to know; the person who was currently standing in front of her hurling insults. But maybe that's because he thought she'd somehow change her mind. That she would come around. That his position and authority would eventually render her helpless and she'd have no choice but to want him in that way. She shivered in disgust at the very thought.

"What the hell is going on?!"

Daniel's eery gaze left her as he looked towards the door of her office, where the voice was coming from. Jessica felt the subtle weight that had settled in her chest, lift at the sound of his voice. She didn't even look at him, but felt him swiftly approaching them with deliberate and steady strides.

"Oh look, it's you," Daniel lamented mockingly at Harvey. "So nice of you to join us, I always like to indulge the second in command as well. The trusty yet inferior sidekick."

Harvey had a retort for that. He actually had several, but once he had gotten close enough, the look on Jessica's face coupled with her body language, stopped him dead in this tracks. He felt the anger rise in his throat as he angled his body in front of her, putting half of himself in between her and Daniel. Harvey's face gleaned with uncertainty, his eyebrows knitted together as he quickly surveyed her face. Harvey wasn't accustomed to her like this, he didn't even know what this was. He felt something twist deep in his gut.

"What did he say to you?" Harvey asked her hurriedly, trying to catch her eyes, but she was fixated on Daniel. Harvey didn't even wait for the answer that wasn't coming. He turned his shoulders and gave Daniel a look that should have turned him to stone. "What did you say to her?"

"Who me?" Daniel asked, feigning shock and slight moral outrage at the insinuation he had done something wrong. "I didn't say anything, we were simply reminiscing."

"I know you didn't touch her," Harvey fumed almost through gritted teeth. "Because you're a coward and you don't have a death wish."

Harvey's mere presence and the faint smell of his cologne was enough to bring Jessica out of the entrapment of past memories that she had hoped to never recall. She managed to shoot Daniel a look comparable to seismic daggers. Harvey's attention rapidly turned back to Jessica as he tried to disengage the almost impenetrable fixation she had on Daniel.

"Look at me," Harvey urged her lightly. Jessica's eyes immediately met his upon request. His ordinarily deep eyes seemed like endless pools of confusion, concern, and anger. She felt a strange tinge of guilt, coupled with worry; she hadn't meant to alarm him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Jessica responded, she tried to manage a reassuring look but her voice was hard and flat.

"Oh, look at you two," Hardman interjected pointedly. "If I didn't know any better, which I do might I add, I would think that there was something going on between you two."

"You insufferable sack of shit," Harvey mumbled as he tore his eyes off of Jessica, giving Daniel all of his attention. "I suggest you stop right there if you wanna make it out of building."

"Eek, I'm shaking," Hardman patronized slowly yet precisely. "I must say, you defend her with such exactitude, it's oddly inspiring though obviously unwarranted."

"You know what you delusional prick? Go sell that shit somewhere else. You're done here."

"Harvey, I'm simply extending a gesture to you," Hardman explained, his words calculating and purposeful. "Whatever intentions or wishes you're harboring in regards to her, you should absolve yourself of right now. Because Jessica Pearson doesn't do that, she doesn't operate that way."

"Lucky for me, this isn't a deposition and I'm not acting as her lawyer. You keep this up Hardman, I'm gonna lay your ass out." Harvey promised with keen sincerity. Even though they weren't touching, he could feel Jessica tense up beside him. He quickly realized that his own jaw was clenched tightly and right hand was almost aching to form a fist. After every cruel and hurtful thing that Hardman said about Jessica in the deposition, this seemed like unnecessary fodder just to simple get a rise out of both of them, but more precisely out of Harvey. And it was working.

"Don't," Jessica asserted quickly. Harvey's gaze fell on her face and though she was still focused on Hardman, she seemed less despondent and more herself. There was a clarity in her eyes now that had been missing. Her posture was even different. "That's exactly what he wants. He wants us to be reactionary. That's why he has the audacity to stand there and spew these vile, inaccurate insults at me. But I'm done. Done giving you my reactions, my time. You and the horse you rode in on can go straight to hell. I hope I never have the displeasure of seeing your sad and sorry face aside from at every one of those cases that we will win."

"Well brava," Daniel acquiesced with sheer condescension. "It seems you've got my number..."

There was a brief pause that Daniel took with great purpose. Both Jessica and Harvey waited as he looked back and forth between the two, clearly conjuring up some final dagger that was supposed to send them over the edge. Jessica was over him literally wasting space in her office and she didn't know, nor care what his final closing remarks would be. She wanted him gone.

"Anything to add, right hand man?" Daniel asked Harvey directly, the way he meticulously uttered the phrase was meant to highlight the obvious in an excruciatingly painful manner. "You know, if I were you: I'd get tired of enacting that role without eventually being able to stand in my own light. Beside her as an equal. Are you that helplessly devoted to her that you can't see that it'll never happen?"

"You are so off base," Harvey retorted. So full of self-assuredness, he all but smirked. "You have no clue."

"Don't I?" Daniel bemused, frankly he was finding it hard to hide his amusement of what he knew he was going to reveal. He only regretted that he wouldn't be there to watch it all fall around them like a house of cards. "You're completely fine with being last in line after she begs half of Manhattan to partner with her so this firm doesn't go belly up? Really? I guess, I was mistaken. I took you for more of a man than that."

"What are you talking about?" Harvey questioned with a great air of confusion. The earlier certainty had waned from his shoulders just slightly as perplexity crept in.

"Daniel," Jessica warned, in what she realized was an incredibly futile attempt to halt what was impending. She knew he wasn't going to stop, that he was going to reveal something that she wasn't ready for Harvey to know, that she hadn't even thought of explaining to him after she had made the decision. Regardless of if it hadn't worked out in her favor or not, she knew his reaction would be demonstrative. Jessica didn't have the energy for this, she was too tired. She'd spit in Hardman's face for doing this to her, for purposely bringing this to her door, if she was less of a person.

"I mean, for goodness sake Harvey, she attempts to elicit Robert Zane in hopes he'll agree to becoming partner here, the very man who brought me back to your doorstep. And you're fine with that? You're willing to jump in front of every bulldozer, avalanche, and semi truck for her but she can't even put you're name on the wall? You must have it worse than I ever did."

Harvey felt like his ears were ringing. He was staring at Daniel trying to string the last bit of his words together. There was a lot there that he wasn't really able to ascertain properly in his brain. Words and implications and truths that were being revealed to him that he couldn't quite place and decipher. His blood was boiling and he felt like his throat was closing. The amount of varying emotions that were cascading through him was enough to sink a ship, or blow it up.

Jessica watched Harvey go through these stages, she saw his whole demeanor change right beside her. Jessica could feel herself subconsciously start to physically take on some of his mannerisms sympathetically, but she shook it off as she started racking her brain on how she was going to explain this. How she was going to try and make this better. If she had wanted to strangle Daniel before, now she wanted to throw him straight through the window. To think she ever looked up to the man made her stomach turn.

"You didn't know," Daniel exclaimed trying to fake shock, as if he was just surmising that fact from the look on Harvey's face. "I guess I'm not that off base."

Silence pooled over both the empty and full spaces in Jessica's office as Harvey eyed Daniel and Jessica eyed Harvey. After a moment, Daniel who was the proud portrayal of utter satisfaction gave them both a well placed look before backing up.

"You two have a good night." Daniel added, his voice thick with how pleased he was with himself.

And just like that he was gone. Before Daniel was even fully out of the door, Harvey took a few steps to distance himself from Jessica. She anticipated his movement before he exhibited it, part of her strangely wanted to grab his arm, make him stay that close. Maybe that would diminish the level of anger and frustration he would show. Harvey walked towards the window, the angle of his body shielded his face from her view. She was just waiting for it to start, waiting for what would undoubtedly be him unraveling about being left in the dark once again.

Harvey had to loosen his tie. There was a thickness creeping into his neck that was annoying and distracting. Because it was so late, he had taken off his suit jacket and left it in his office hours ago. He bit the inside of his mouth as a million different thoughts played a thousand different games in his head. Leaving him more frustrated, hurt and angry than when the truth had first been revealed. Processing information sometimes didn't make it better, sometimes it made it worse. Sometimes it made you feel more devalued and unimportant. Harvey focused on the almost pitch black skyline outside of the window and tried to calm himself before he said anything. His attempts weren't working. Everything he thought to say sounded too harsh or too lame. He instead busied himself with his shirt sleeves, unbuttoning and rolling them up around his forearms. He had to direct his agitated energy somewhere, and he wasn't quite ready for that target to be her. He couldn't even bring himself to look at her. Daniel's words kept playing on a loop in his head.

"Harvey," Jessica offered gently. The slight slump of his shoulders coupled with his silence was making her dread the inevitable with even greater precision.

"You're one of the only people that can make me feel like this," Harvey responded, his voice hollow. "One of the only people who can make me feel like I'm not everything I think. You really know how to cut me down to size."

"Harvey, look at this more objectively. It's a very difficult time and it was one of our best options," Jessica explained evenly, hoping to successfully placate him into not making this a big deal.

"One of our best options?" Harvey questioned, his voice rising as he turned around to finally look at her. The look on her face made him even more infuriated. "You try to merge with the very man who delegated those cases to Hardman of all people. That's a good option to you? Someone who knows exactly who that animal is, someone who tries a case against us not even two weeks ago and you want to put his name on the wall?"

"It's not that simple," Jessica offered evenly, her eyes scanning him in detail. The inflections in his voice were a dead give away, but the placement of his body told a much more layered story. His anger was a bit unsettling, what was worse though was the amount of hurt and anguish that he was letting show through it.

"It's not?" Harvey asked, bitterness laced his voice. His eyebrows knitting as he forced a sad, fake smile. Those familiar lines around his eyes showed just the same. "It's not that simple that you would rather ask whoever else instead of me?"

"Harvey..." Jessica interjected responsively. He felt personally wronged by her, and it was also as if he thought that she believed he truly wasn't good enough for the title.

"Robert Zane wouldn't fight for you and this firm the way that I would, the way that I always have, and you know that!" Harvey exclaimed, he threw his hands in the air in utter frustration. All his negative emotions were becoming more heightened, they weren't dialing down.

"You're not ready," Jessica explained lightly, she wanted to give him some speech. Draw him some comparison, something to relate it to. But they'd had that conversation already, and he was much more receptive then than he would be now. Now he just felt inadequate and in the dark.

"When did you ask him?" Harvey wondered aloud suddenly, regretting to touch her statement of his lack of readiness for such a position.

Jessica shifted her weight as she eyed him, realizing that the timing was even more problematic and would probably send him into an all out tailspin. She considered keeping it from him, but she didn't want to lie. She suddenly felt this guilt about feeling as though she couldn't keep things from him. She was the boss, he didn't need to know everything. But whenever he would find out, it would always result in similar confrontations that ended up hurting the both of them, and damaging the trust that they had in the other person.

"That night I told you I had a date," Jessica relented. Physically bearing down on her internal will and the floor. She needed to be fully grounded for what was to come.

"That's why you told me to take down Hardman's name."

"Yes, it is." Jessica replied frankly.

"So not only were you lying by omission, you flat out lied to my face." Harvey accused blatantly.

"Harvey, you know I don't tell you everything, nor should I. Don't be glib." Jessica replied, she felt herself coming more into her own now. She was exhausted, but her and Harvey going a round or two wasn't something she was unfamiliar with or couldn't handle.

"You knew what I thought when you said it, when you told me to take his name down," Harvey responded, his eyes darting over her as he took a step away from the window and then back again, all his energy and frustration threatening to spill out all over himself. "You knew what that meant to me, and you just let me think it."

Jessica took a breath but didn't say anything. This was always the problem, especially as of late, with their relationship. She sometimes made him privy to privileged information, that was part of his role as her partner in crime. He knew more about many things than anyone else at that firm, but sometimes how he proceeded to use said information would put them at odds. So when she didn't divulge certain things, especially things that would directly impact him, he became disoriented and impulsive.

Jessica watched him silently fume and she felt a sincere sense of guilt. She had known what he had thought that night, she had known that it would get his hopes up, even if she told him previously that it wasn't happening. The way they operated together was often tenacious. Sometimes he appealed to a part of her that was persuaded by his points and his methods. But this wasn't about a case, or a client. This was about the firm. Her firm. She wouldn't go against what she truly believed, even if he was hurt or disgruntled.

"I think you'll be a very capable managing partner someday," Jessica began calmly, trying to catch his eyes but he had turned toward the window and away from her again. "But Harvey, that day isn't today or tomorrow, or next week. You have so much more to do and learn before you can take that step."

"But Robert Zane?" Harvey asked under his breathe, his voice laced with incredulity. His mind still reeling.

"He declined my offer," Jessica replied.

"That's not the point!" Harvey retorted with a bit too much force in his voice, as he turned to face her once more.

"Don't raise your voice at me." Jessica instructed firmly, her eyes narrowing at him.

"You know, Allison didn't seem to think I wasn't ready," Harvey exclaimed, trying to get his emotions in order. He wasn't used to not getting what he wanted, and after the last couple of weeks, his name on that wall climbed higher and higher on that list. "She told me to jump ship."

"Go work for her then!" Jessica shot back quickly, almost as an instinct, a defense mechanism. Not in the joking way she'd said in the past, but in an arduous and tempered manner. Almost like she was spitting fire. It wounded him to hear her say that in such a way, even if he knew that she didn't mean it. Right after the words left Jessica's mouth they felt like too much, she knew they were too harsh. He was already obviously upset, the way his eyes took on a distinct sadness when those words hit him was hard to miss. Jessica swallowed as she waited for his response. What she got, wasn't at all what she had expected.

"I would never leave you," Harvey responded after letting the silence settle, there was a tightness that was unmistakable in his jaw. Jessica felt the breath get caught in her throat at such an overt verbal declaration. And it wasn't just the words, it was the way in which he languaged them. With a myriad of undertones, those five specific words took an abrupt and masterful hold on her lungs. "Sometimes my tactics aren't the best, sometimes I'm irrational and I know that drives you crazy but I wouldn't go anywhere else. I couldn't."

Jessica still didn't have a response for him being so forthcoming. She knew he was upset with her, but even that obvious fact was not indicative of the type of vulnerability and honesty he was showcasing before her. This wasn't the Harvey Specter she was used to. He was always all cool, calm charm and arrogance most of the time, with flashes of haste, frustration or rebellion. Never prominent expressions of loyalty and unwavering dedication. Not with such transparency. She felt something stir in the bottom of her stomach, something that made her view him as a man, not as her favorite subordinate. That feeling had visited her on more than one occasion, but she would always ignore it and push it away. She would write it off as trivial, assuming that their level of closeness sometimes made things more convoluted. Especially when they fought like this.

"Who here do you turn to more than me?" Harvey asked his eyes scanning her. They were both assessing each other carefully, wondering how this was going to play out. Harvey was all unraveling inadequacies and doubt. She was the one person who always esteemed him, the one who saw through all his cool vibrato, saw the uncertainty that was hiding somewhere underneath, deep underneath where other people couldn't locate it. When she kept things from him, that was her right as the boss, he did understood that. Even if he didn't like it. But to hear her tell him to go elsewhere in her frustration, to know that she didn't feel like he was ready to be regarded as her equal. That hurt way more than his pride, it hurt his heart.

"No one," Jessica admitted almost proudly, as she took a couple of steps towards him. She couldn't really take him being this emotionally depleted, she hadn't seen him like this in years. "Sometimes you are a crutch, maybe one I rely too heavily on. But sometimes you're a liability that I can't reconcile. I always have the utmost faith in your ability, it's your judgment that sometimes, gives me pause. I can deal with you being upset Harvey. I can handle you being mad at me. I've got broad shoulders, they hold a lot. What I can't handle is you feeling like you aren't ever gonna get there. That there's still some tiny part of the boy from the mail room who underneath all of his cocky antics thinks that he won't really amount to much. You just need time, the pinnacle will come."

Harvey breathed as he took her words in. The look on her face and the sincerity in what she said helped center him a bit. He was still agitated and felt a bit overwhelmed by the weight of what had unfolded in the past hour, but just her presence started to have a soothing effect on him. Sometimes she was just that person to him. She'd put him on the edge and then pull him right back.

"This is exactly what they want, you know?" Jessica posed gently, as she sighed and shook her head. Feigning off a small laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. "Hardman and the rest of them. To know that we're fighting like this, to know that we don't trust each other."

"I trust you," Harvey corrected her gently, his eyes bore into hers. He waited a full two seconds to let that sentence resonant with her before walking past her, and sinking into her couch. "You just don't trust me."

He'd been standing for too long. He felt physically exhausted. He had went through so many different emotions, since he walked into her office. From seeing Hardman, her reaction to him, realizing Robert Zane had almost become his boss, his unexpected feelings of displacement and professional rejection. It was all a huge burden to bear. Harvey briefly closed his eyes as he rubbed the space between his eyebrows and the bride of his nose and then his jaw, his head was starting to hurt. He felt the couch shift under her weight as she sat down next to him.

"You're questioning my judgment, which means you don't trust me. Not completely."

"Well I guess we're even." Harvey lamented softly as he directed his attention back to her. She looked exhausted, but yet still so gorgeous. He almost didn't want to look at her, the stark contrast only drained him further.

"Hardly," Jessica muttered leaning against the back of the couch, she angled herself to face him and rested her head against the top of it. "You've got a ways to go before we're even."

"It seems that way," Harvey all but sighed.

"Harvey you're a bright man," Jessica began, studying his frame beginning to relax beside her. "You aren't without acute self awareness. You're emotional, you're arrogant, you're a polarizing individual, even to those who adore you."

"Adore is a strong word." Harvey retorted sarcastically. Some of his normal characteristics had decided to return.

"For some, maybe." Jessica agreed. She felt good about the tone that the conversation was taking now. The calm that settled over both of them on that couch, after being emotionally wrung dry, was apparent.

"Hardman's a raving lunatic and he was managing partner for all those years."

"Until we discovered the monstrosity of an individual he really is," Jessica pointed out. "But character is only half of it."

"I know," Harvey admitted, he suddenly realized how closely they were sitting. Had she done that, or had he?

"You've got to know how much it means to me the lengths that you go to for the firm..."

"For you." Harvey corrected, almost not of his own accord. Almost as if his mouth spoke it before his brain gave permission.

"I'm sorry?" Jessica questioned, she tried to catch his eyes but he wouldn't engage her.

"The lengths that I go to for you," Harvey explained, his knuckle briefly touched her knee in illustration. "The firm only inspires my loyalty because your name is on the door."

"You and I are a team," Jessica began, she absentmindedly reached out and touched his wrist when she said it. That gesture seemed to surprise them both, as Harvey finally met her gaze with a look that bounced between vulnerable and uncertain with an underlining hint of something else that Jessica couldn't quite effectively place. "Even if I don't tell you certain things or if your name isn't beside mine on the wall, we're a team."

Harvey knew she was right as his eyes held hers. They were a team, even when they fought, even when one was beyond irritated with the other. They both would battle tooth and nail for the firm. For each other. He had to reconcile himself with her keeping things from him and not making him managing partner. She had to know what she was doing. She always did. She was the wisest, most brilliant woman he knew, even when he didn't agree with her he believed that with everything he was.

Jessica's gaze flitted briefly to her hand, she had unconsciously started tracing the protruding veins on the inside of his wrist. She wondered how long she had been doing that, or if he even noticed. He wasn't reacting any sort of way if he had. The accidental intimacy of that moment scared her, but she didn't stop. She rectified the action by thinking that it must have had a calming effect on him. She felt his penetrating gaze as she studied his veins. She had always found protruding veins so fascinating, they almost looked like lightening strikes beneath skin. His reminded her of her ex's. Her mind making that comparison startled her, she gave his wrist a quick squeeze and then withdrew her hand, looking for neutral territory in her office for her eyes to focus on.

Harvey continued to watch her. He had often wondered so many things about her at any given moment, this moment was no different. He just watched, didn't talk, didn't move, barely breathed. He thought back to earlier that evening when he was walking by her office and he saw Daniel and her locked in what looked to be a standoff. He remembered his blood pressure rising and being pissed that he was even there. But as he got closer he realized that Daniel was the only one in the standoff, Jessica had looked like she was off completely. Like she wasn't even there. It had been incredibly jarring to see her like that.

"When I came in here earlier," Harvey started lightly, moving just slightly to reposition himself. His arm falling on the back of the couch behind her. "What was he saying to you? What was that about?"

"I don't even remember, it wasn't important. He was just being an asshole," Jessica dismissed the mere mention of the man.

"I'd never seen you like that before," Harvey admitted. Jessica thought she heard a slight shakiness in his voice but she wasn't certain. "It freaked me out."

"I was outside of myself for a moment," Jessica recalled as she took a deep breath. "I forgot who was."

"He must have said something pretty awful for you to forget who you are," Harvey assessed knowingly.

"He's a master manipulator, it seems I fell for it for a second," Jessica responded, thinking back to the earlier confrontation with Daniel. If she could have it back she would have said a million things. "That won't happen again."

"He didn't get over you rejecting him, it seems," Harvey posed pointedly. Jessica's eyes found his after those words were processed.

"What makes you say that?" Jessica questioned. Daniel had said so many hurtful, outrageous things that they were all starting to melt together. Until that moment, she had forgot when he compared Harvey to himself in relation to her.

"When he said that I had it worse then he ever did." Harvey explained carefully, watching her for any sign of a reaction to what he was inferring. She didn't give one. She was all stoic and refined energy.

"You can't listen to anything he says," Jessica replied, with a brief backwards swat of her hand to the air. "He was just trying to get a rise out of you."

"I didn't deny it," Harvey let out, almost by accident, almost just to see what she would say.

Jessica didn't respond. Only replayed that line in her head as their eye contact held. He had just admitted in a roundabout way what both of them had been sure of for quite some time. Jessica knew she couldn't refute it, she also knew it was more than some isolated, misguided crush. And that it wasn't completely one-sided. The reason why they never spoke about it was because acknowledging it would bring about a whole other set of problems. Ones that they couldn't really adequately address. Jessica took a deep breathe and shifted her eyes elsewhere.

This was one of the reasons that fighting with him was so problematic. The way they made up often threatened to shift into uncharted and dangerous territory.

"It's late," Jessica muttered, after the tension in the room had time to take a lap or two. She felt the barely there tips of his fingers on her shoulders.

"Yeah, it is," Harvey agreed.

"Let's go," Jessica suggested as she finally got to her feet.

As they walked out of her office a few minutes later and through the halls, past her name newly alone on the wall, they did so side by side. Both walking oddly in sync with the other.

They were in it together, he and her.

They were a team.


End file.
